Speaker A
Good evening, everyone. Can you hear me okay? Can I come here? Great.
Explores the Telugu account of the Nine Naths, focusing on yogis' empowerment and challenges in medieval South India.
Ask about this video. Answers come from its transcript only — with the timestamp, so you can check them.
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Key Takeaways
- The Telugu Navanata Charitra is a crucial but understudied source for understanding the Naths and Hatha Yoga in South India.
- South India, especially the Deccan, played a significant role in shaping early Hatha Yoga traditions.
- Yogis in the text are portrayed with complex identities, both empowered spiritually and imperiled socially.
- The text blends poetics, ritual, and astrology, reflecting a multifaceted cultural milieu.
- Scholarly engagement with these texts can reshape understanding of medieval South Asian yogic traditions.
What the video covers
- The video features Jamal James discussing his research on the literary history of southern India, especially Sanskrit and Telugu texts.
- Focus on the Telugu text Navanata Charitra from the early 15th century, narrating the story of the nine Naths and their yogic traditions.
- Explores intersections between poetics, ritual, and astrology in the medieval Deccan region.
- Highlights the importance of South India, particularly the Deccan, in the early history of Hatha Yoga.
- Discusses the representation of yogis as both empowered and imperiled within the Telugu literary tradition.
- Examines the connections between the Naths and other Shaiva traditions like the Virasaivas.
- Analyzes the aesthetic power and narrative strategies in the Navanata Charitra text.
- Mentions key figures such as Virupa and their rare Indian textual references.
- Considers the socio-political context of Vijayanagara and its influence on yogic literature.
- Addresses scholarly debates on the classification and identity of the Naths in medieval texts.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Speaker Background
- 03:47Overview of the Talk and Research Focus
- 08:26Key Texts and Early Discoveries
- 13:38Yoga Practices and Poetic Representations
- 18:41Virasaiva Forum and Scholarly Context
- 23:28Poetics, Astrology, and Literary Analysis
- 31:16Narrative and Historical Context
- 37:14Socio-political Influences and Conclusion
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
uh doctor professor i'm not the professor i think now is that right jamal professor jamal james yeah uh congratulations jamal studies the literary history of southern india with particular interests in sanskrit and telugu and his current research looks at
Speaker A
So, I'm Jim Allen, the chair of the Center for Yoga Studies, and I'm really excited this evening to be introducing our speaker who's...
Speaker A
wisconsin-madison which is somewhere i've always wanted to get to it's a sort of hotbed of south asian studies it must be a great place to to be congratulations um jamal was uh at uc davis before that and before that you're in chicago well
Speaker A
Doctor, professor—I'm not the professor, I think now, is that right, Jamal? Professor Jamal James? Yeah.
Speaker A
it must be three or four years ago now i very luckily got sort of early draft or just as you were submitting i think maybe i i squeezed it out of whitney i can't remember but um we're going back so before that when i
Speaker A
Congratulations, Jamal. You study the literary history of southern India with particular interests in Sanskrit and Telugu, and your current research looks at intersections between poetics, ritual, and astrology in the medieval and early Deccan.
Speaker A
question that was thrown my way i remember basically they were all softballs i think you would say over there but uh the one curveball was um why are you not focusing on south india in this project and i
Speaker A
You're currently serving, I think it's a new shift, as assistant professor of South Asian Studies in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which is somewhere I've always wanted to get to.
Speaker A
progressed my work on the on the hata yoga project became more and more apparent that in fact south or the deccan in particular it was really important for the early history of uh hutta yoga and there were some tantalizing references
Speaker A
It's a sort of hotbed of South Asian studies. It must be a great place to be. Congratulations.
Speaker A
how i heard about it but somehow i discovered that jamal was working on it in chicago and i got a copy of the thesis early on and it was one of those really exciting things as i read that
Speaker A
Jamal was at UC Davis before that, and before that, you were in Chicago?
Speaker A
out so one of the texts that you know the earliest text we're working on the amrita city is actually mentioned in the text and virupa it's author it's one of the very few indian mentions of uh virupa as a you
Speaker A
Well, that's right, for your PhD, which is supervised by, I think we can say, our very own Professor Whitney Cox, who was my predecessor as the Sanskrit lecturer at PSOAS.
Speaker A
had a lot of engagement with jamal over the intervening period so and we tried to get him to search a few times and one of the few benefits of lockdown and all this care because it didn't work out he had too much teaching and the
Speaker A
Now, I came across Jamal's work, I guess it must be three or four years ago now. I very luckily got sort of an early draft or just as you were submitting, I think maybe I squeezed it out of Whitney, I can't remember, but...
Speaker A
agreeing to speak to us and i'm very excited to hear your talk on yogi's empowered and imperiled in the telugu account of the nine nights over to you jamal everyone uh thank you for uh coming out today another yeah as
Speaker A
We're going back. So before that, when I was sort of setting up or proposing the Hatha Yoga project and I got called for an interview in Brussels, I remember, for, you know, it was the kind of last stage to get the grant.
Speaker A
many ways and um so i'm i'm very excited to be able to engage with this community on the subject so let me get the screen share going to pull up my sort of handful of slides um in the meantime just i want to kind
Speaker A
And the one tricky question that was thrown my way, I remember, basically they were all softballs, I think you would say over there, but the one curveball was, why are you not focusing on South India in this project?
Speaker A
composed in the in telugu during the early 15th century uh gauranos navanata charitra narrates the travails of masendranat and his band of yogi disciples often cited as a key document of the not some pradaya's history in the medieval
Speaker A
And I somehow batted it away rather ineffectually. I can't quite remember what I said, something like, oh, none of the texts were written in South India, it doesn't matter, it's not important.
Speaker A
as well as his patron um the monastic potentiate mukti santa bishop is a parent leadership role within srishalam's virus community so i won't speak too much on the aquatic forum immediately though i'm happy to talk about it i think there are
Speaker A
But I kind of knew there was a problem there, and as I progressed, my work on the Hatha Yoga project became more and more apparent that in fact South, or the Deccan in particular, was really important for the early history of Hatha Yoga.
Speaker A
through and that's how we can kind of think through some of these uh affiliations and connections between the naz and the veto shaivas um and you know to what extent it's even desirable to sort of label the work in a particular
Speaker A
And there were some tantalizing references in some secondary literature to this poet-governor who had written up a Telugu text, early Telugu, called the Navanata Charitra, so, you know, the stories of the nine nights.
Speaker A
even mason formations of the sampadaya as we know it but beyond that gauranus poem represents the knots in a way as a little bit of a legendary project thus i think we would miss a lot of what the text does if we sort of only look
Speaker A
But there was nothing more than that, and then somehow, I can't remember how I heard about it, but somehow I discovered that Jamal was working on it in Chicago, and I got a copy of the thesis early on, and it was one of those really exciting things as I read that.
Speaker A
coherence and limits what we might get out of the novel so taking a broader look i would instead concentrate on the poem's persistent interest in aesthetic power um and i think that this in particular helps us to make better
Speaker A
And it really pulled everything together. You know, I could, I could luckily get Jamal to tell us more about it because he obviously knows it much better than I do.
Speaker A
fathers of the not symphody according to david white the text contains the earliest list of nine knots that matches those recognized by the contemporary sampradaya that said in any immediate sense it's difficult to label galino's composition or work of
Speaker A
But there were various things, one in particular stood out. So one of the texts, you know, the earliest text we're working on, the Amritasiddhi, is actually mentioned in the text, and Virupa, its author, it's one of the very few Indian mentions of Virupa as a, you know, in the context of Hatha Yoga and the Nath.
Speaker A
exception of golodaksha's encounter with allama prabhu the siddhas do not debate or compete with yogis and adepts of rival traditions so in that sense it's in a way hard to maybe define them as a against other kind of
Speaker A
And that just kind of blew my mind, to be honest, and, you know, set off all kinds of fascinating things, which ideas I'm yet to write them all down.
Speaker A
best in that regard on that statement um so further gaurano mentions nothing of the knots being subdivided into 12 punts which has been taken as a key marker of not identity um and further as uh jim allison here as has suggested uh we don't have a
Speaker A
And I've had a lot of engagement with Jamal over the intervening period, so...
Speaker A
the knots um appear um or rather aside from the appearance of figures that the sampradaya ultimately claims the basic warrant for labeling the text a kind of not text has been the title of the work and indeed it's subject matter
Speaker A
And we tried to get him to search a few times, and one of the few benefits of lockdown and all this care, because it didn't work out, he had too much teaching and the timings weren't right.
Speaker A
the knots mentioned uh in the navanathi charitable um some of these in fact do not carry the label not at all so in particular nagarjuna and buddha uh and gauranga seems to use some of these labels of nothing siddha and yogi
Speaker A
But one of the benefits of this lockdown is that we can get people from all over the world to speak to us.
Speaker A
strong and detailed sartorial description of not all of them not all the knots and siddhas mentioned but sandra in particular um and we and we can see here him that masendra in fact uh displays some sort of telltale
Speaker A
So, with that, I could go on forever, but yeah, thanks so much for agreeing to speak to us, and I'm very excited to hear your talk on "Yogis Empowered and Imperiled in the Telugu Account of the Nine Nights."
Speaker A
but not exactly using the terminology of the singh nadjanu however aside from these um sort of markers um particular markers we don't in fact get some of the other kind of telltale signs um in particular the ear splitting
Speaker A
Over to you, Jamal. Everyone.
Speaker A
the sort of understanding of goraksha and other knots and sort of pre-modern texts on yoga yogic and tantric traditions and from the beginning of the work in fact museum that is represented as a practitioner of yoga and he and the other signals are seen
Speaker A
Thank you for coming out today. Another... yeah, as Theo said, there's a lot going on in the world, and so I appreciate you coming to listen, and hopefully, I mean, we can have ample time in the Q&A.
Speaker A
devoted cowherd who eventually becomes the chief not the goraksha discovers meenanatha machindra engaging precisely in this kind of practice and later it is in a contemplative technique that machine gunner guides the prince um saranga dara who often will become
Speaker A
I'm still learning about the text in many ways, and so I'm very excited to be able to engage with this community on the subject.
Speaker A
sanskrit texts in which the forebears of the nazim padaya were synthesized with hata yoga and in fact it is this contemplative yoga that appears to be a central path to bodily power in the navanatha now so this technique is particularly on
Speaker A
So let me get the screen share going to pull up my sort of handful of slides.
Speaker A
he recalls shiva's yoga's teachings on yoga um he visualizes his limbs their divinities their numbers their sensations and then it is through this practice that the prince sarangada is able to regenerate his limbs sort of interesting point here is in
Speaker A
In the meantime, I just want to kind of reiterate, so thanks to Theo, thanks to Jim for bringing me and inviting me.
Speaker A
here in this slide that was the sort of background image for the social media advertisement let me go forward again now it's through this practice ultimately that sarangada is able to grow a perfected body a siddha deja um and is through this event that
Speaker A
So, is the screen share showing up all right?
Speaker A
focused um sort of hatha yoga uh practice that that is also depicted that allows the siddhis to manipulate theirs and others bodies in spectacular ways now the word haka or any form never appears in the work but by deploying some of the language around
Speaker A
Great.
Speaker A
is that rather than this this power this uh being just a siddhi that a yoga might use yogi might use at will um it is sort of represented as a uh a technique um sort of sort of actively employed
Speaker A
Okay, let's see how this goes.
Speaker A
putting his mind firmly on shiva that foremost of siddhas brought on his breath brought his breath under control drew it upward made himself firm as the kundalini stretch properly broke the three knots gently brought the kundalini upward wondrously shined as one rich in ancient
Speaker A
So, I'm just going to launch into it.
Speaker A
on and meena natas atma then reached the king's body so he is using this uh practice controlling his breath manipulating the kundalini um as a way of uh affecting the siddhi of pravesha sort of entering or possessing another's body
Speaker A
Composed in Telugu during the early 15th century, Gaurano's Navanata Charitra narrates the travails of Masendranath and his band of yogi disciples.
Speaker A
um and you know as jim mentioned in the introduction you know he does this in other ways in particular um by you know reaper by producing this uh attribution of um of this text which he calls the amritanya siddhi
Speaker A
Often cited as a key document of the Nath Sampradaya's history in the medieval Deccan, the poem and its poet Gauranga are also said to represent Andhra's Virasaiva community, this Shaiva kind of heterodox group.
Speaker A
um with the amritanya siddhi um he's he's really presenting a sort of general scent a sort of picture of the siddhas that accords with um sort of our larger sense of how the sort of nascent tradition looked at
Speaker A
This connection, the literary historians maintain, is evident from his use of the dwipadi verse form favored by the Virasaiva poets, as well as his patron, the monastic potentate Mukti Santa, who is a prominent leadership role within Srishalam's Virasaiva community.
Speaker A
of the knots as sid does you know in the sense of you know practicing a range of sort of alchemical techniques um and sort of being interested in herbs and sort of magical substances so i would say in contrast to the yogic
Speaker A
So I won't speak too much on the Virasaiva forum immediately, though I'm happy to talk about it. I think there are interesting things to say there, but I won't say much immediately now.
Speaker A
of mantras and of mercury and you know that that sort of the depth that we get in terms of describing alchemy um but even here right i mean we have some sort of common common places right galena is emphasizing
Speaker A
I'm happy with discussing questions, but today I really want to think about kind of the larger structure and sort of thematic and narrative appearance of the Navanata Charitra.
Speaker A
do have them like seeking out and discovering say depositories of mercury in the mountainous wilderness um but it's only towards the end of the story in particular in the story of um nagarjuna said the student that we actually kind of see a siddha
Speaker A
And that's how we can kind of think through some of these affiliations and connections between the Nath and the Virasaivas, and, you know, to what extent it's even desirable to sort of label the work in a particular way.
Speaker A
deep interest in um sort of magical substances particularly magical herbs or accidents again these are vaguely described we simply have them sort of discovering them in the wilderness again or throwing them say into a fire when they're under when they're doing
Speaker A
To preview my position, I want to suggest that the Navanata Charitra was not quite a Nath text, if by that we mean a text of the Nath Sampradaya.
Speaker A
fauna in this case a bird that depending on which part of it you eat will grant you long life um kind of royal sovereignty or siddha hood itself so um that's sort of a brief of kind of rundown of the sort of
Speaker A
I think we find suggestive parallels to even Mason formations of the Sampradaya as we know it, but beyond that, Gaurano's poem represents the Naths in a way as a little bit of a legendary project.
Speaker A
um so um and while they sort of affirm and sort of offer very interesting descriptions of zanatas and i think in particular i mean we i mean i think the other thing that we get is we do get this kind
Speaker A
Thus, I think we would miss a lot of what the text does if we sort of only look forward to the Sampradaya.
Speaker A
much more than the nine knots technically um but we also have a sort of a longer list in a later chapter of many more disciples but these are just sort of listed and named i'm happy i'm happy to sort of
Speaker A
Similarly, as we might put aside the focus on the Sampradaya, I think that focusing too narrowly on a kind of viewership or reading of the text also looks for too much coherence and limits what we might get out of the novel.
Speaker A
about more broadly um because i i kind of and how should we which how should we read it what should we get out of it um now sort of other other ways of reading it um have focused on
Speaker A
So, taking a broader look, I would instead concentrate on the poem's persistent interest in aesthetic power.
Speaker A
and largely this is because of the verse form of the poem and it's written in the form called teleguipada which is sort of so highly associated and favored by telugu virus poets um but i would just say in briefly
Speaker A
And I think that this, in particular, helps us to make better sense of the poem, the poet, and how they can, how these connect to the religious and political culture of Srishalam.
Speaker A
work so his other major works that i've sort of worked that i've worked on and i'm you know continuing to work on is this text on poetics and astrology called the lakshana deepika um wherein he he really i mean he sort
Speaker A
So, it stands as one of the earliest collections of narratives on the Siddhas that would be deemed the founding fathers of the Nath Sampradaya.
Speaker A
prerogatives um and i think largely i mean we can see his his sort of description um of the of of himself at the beginning of the work sort of shows not the kind of um the shiva uh style of introduction um wherein you
Speaker A
According to David White, the text contains the earliest list of nine Naths that matches those recognized by the contemporary Sampradaya.
Speaker A
social world by in particular orienting himself around his his his father and in this case his uncle um who was attached to um the ray charlotte king in the who uh of the the dynasty that was sort of prominent in
Speaker A
That said, in any immediate sense, it's difficult to label Gaurano's composition a work of the Nath Sampradaya, at least as it's been described in recent years.
Speaker A
which the text often gets associated with the veto shaivas is because there's an episode in the fifth cont in the fifth chapter uh you can see on the sort of bottom right of the slot and slot corner of this slide um where garaksha
Speaker A
So, there's no formal institutional structures that are represented in the text, and the text rarely, if at all, offers expository discourses detailing any kind of Nath doctrine.
Speaker A
now in this case um i think you know that's a that's a very in a way a strong point that would affiliate the text with the veto shaiva sort of world textual culture and i i think i don't i don't mean to dismiss it
Speaker A
And with the exception of Golladaksha's encounter with Allama Prabhu, the Siddhas do not debate or compete with yogis and adepts of rival traditions.
Speaker A
it in fact um it's in a kind of underwhelming narrative position let's say um it's not in fact the end of the text which you know maybe we might expect if we were to say that okay well garen was
Speaker A
So, in that sense, it's in a way hard to maybe define them as against other kinds of yoga traditions, perhaps.
Speaker A
text as we have it goes on for uh four more not insignificant stories um and so i want to say that um you know i think this makes us ask kind of what is then what's going on with this text
Speaker A
And this is predictable to agree.
Speaker A
um and sort of the larger i don't know point or instruction if you will if you want to look for those kinds of things from a literary work i'd say that it's really concerned with really kind of obsessed with
Speaker A
For one, aside from Masendra, Charangi, and Goraksha, Gaurano does not overwhelmingly match figures listed in certain other texts of the period.
Speaker A
commonplace and indian romances right and indian story literature they're also very commonly fraught um we often find you know siddhas sort of enacting some kind of occult ritual to achieve sort of their sort of sids of powers or
Speaker A
And literary attacks are what I know best in that regard on that statement.
Speaker A
beings that are you know sort of summoned and roused in the course of these sort of esoteric activities um and you know as sort of you know recompense as a gift for doing this work you know they often get something like a
Speaker A
So, further, Gaurano mentions nothing o—
Speaker A
um evil said those who require you know human or made and often made in sacrifices for their rights um and in both of these cases the sort of kingly figure sort of appear that the kind of the role
Speaker A
of a kind of protector securing the scene and the larger moral order um and the sid doesn't in contrast are these kind of you know they stand in some kind of shadow um and you know this this is where you
Speaker A
know david white um fairly recently has sort of argued that you know in the sort of pan-endic imagination the siddha yogi is fundamentally a sinister yogi an adept who employs occult procedures to gain power and possession of others
Speaker A
especially royalty and you know even when the siddhas that maybe not feel evil let's say or depraved he's he's still kind of a dubious and maybe self-absorbed character um but this is not really how it goes in gabriela's november not
Speaker A
to charity you know it definitely sort of details the exploits of yogis and siddhas and in fact it also agrees to this point that siddha that the relationships between siddhas and kings are generally problematic the difference here is that it identifies a different
Speaker A
source for this problem siddhas in this text they do seek power right through in the means that i've described above and earlier um but in a way it's actually not clear why they do it um because even insofar as they are attaining their
Speaker A
powers the best that i can see in the text is that they do so you know for his own sake in a way but um they only use their powers um in service of others they don't seem to use it for their own gain and when
Speaker A
they do this is criticized that they're doing this kings on the other hand um are categorically displayed depicted in the text as you know kind of walking this sort of selfish path always in pursuit of power and pursuit
Speaker A
of pleasure um and this often has um you know really terrible consequences um at the very least it simply kind of threatens the sort of larger sort of sociological goals of sort of yogurt practice of the siddha teachings that matendra and his
Speaker A
disciples are offering and in this case they're simply kind of disruptive or disappointing but often and sort of um more dramatically they are also they're often displayed as having in fact kind of like you know dangerous and deadly
Speaker A
consequences um and so what we walk away with i i would say from the nova nacho charities remove is that we walk away with an image not of a sinister yogi but of a sinister sovereign um so hold it there for
Speaker A
a moment so what is the problem with kings so fundamentally um you know there's the text is sort of depicting an incompatibility between um sort of the royal class and sort of yogic practices and the sort of the
Speaker A
things that siddhas do um and i think it this runs through the whole text um which we see i mean so it starts with the birth of masendra but very quickly uh in the in the first chapter um go ahead and displease into the
Speaker A
second chapter goes to the story of prince saddam gana who is who is ultimately to become the siddha the nazi and i think that the issue this problem with kings and their sort of relationship to the sid the path
Speaker A
is articulated um first here um in a really dramatic way and the story of this which is known in other versions and you know the prince here goes by other names in other parts of india um is that saranga dara is born to this
Speaker A
king raja mahindra and his chief queen nangi as a result of their sort of ritual devotion to shiva and he grows up he's you know beautiful you know beautiful specimen of young manhood and he's you know he's pledged to to wed an ally
Speaker A
princess but one day while his father the king is out hunting uh the prince and his friends are sort of playing play racing their pet pigeons and the princess bird of course wins but upon winning uh loses its way and and um upon seeing
Speaker A
a beautiful parrot and it's by this site that it's lured into the quarters of chitrangi one of the king's other wives now the prince sees this and decides to go fetch the bird his best friend in this case the chief
Speaker A
minister's son advises him against it advises them against going to see chittangi while while his father's away largely out of this kind of misogynistic argument that um about the corrupt the inherent corruption of women but the prince goes ahead anyway and um
Speaker A
this the queen chatangi aroused by the prince's beauty propositions him um when he comes for the bird the prince rebuffs her um chitrangi is angered and humiliated and vows revenge um and resolve to accuse um to accuse um
Speaker A
about sexual assault essentially um now the king comes back from the hunt um after this has all gone down and goes to see chippongi um and he finds her sort of despondent and you know this is when she levels her
Speaker A
accusation and the king ultimately enraged decides that the king has that his son has to be punished somehow like this is you know he's gone too far and he sends the prince to the forest with two soldiers who cut off
Speaker A
his limbs um now after this is done after the prince has been mutilated uh you know unjustly by the texas term by the text terms um that his agonizing moans are heard by masendra um who then rescue sadangadana and
Speaker A
brings him back to his quave dwelling and he sort of nourishes the prince to health with the aids i should i should note here of um go to of the cowherd who becomes gauraksha who's been bringing massimo milk
Speaker A
and so using so instructing the prince in this raja yoga i mentioned earlier he helps him to grow back his limbs and then ultimately once the prince has been regenerated gives him and initiates him under the title of chowdangi
Speaker A
at this point now the story goes on uh to give sort of more of this and we'll break it down in a moment uh machendra um after initiating chaorungi um plan decides that he needs to go on a
Speaker A
mountain a trip to the mountains to seek out magical herbs um and he leaves chaorangi at the at the cave um and orders him to wait for and initiate uh this cow herd who had um sort of become ninonata's deva tea and
Speaker A
was supplying him with milk um so but after machine gun leaves the prince uh sort of becomes curious about the world and he becomes curious about the fact that he has these like new powers right these sid deets
Speaker A
and he leaves the caves you know he disobeys masendra and after he's left the cowherd comes and waits patiently but eventually chaorungi who's left and sort of gone on his own sort of walkabout of a kind finds machindra
Speaker A
and matsyendra running into chaurangi you know out in the mountains essentially um becomes very angry and then he goes goes on to sort of disparage the dislo disloyalty as well as the sort of general disloyalty displayed by kashatriyas and he curses charungi at
Speaker A
the end of this part of the narrative to actually be without his own lineage of disciples um so there's a lot there um but i sort of want to sort of think about like what we should make of
Speaker A
the story and you know for one uh gaudina sort of invokes the problem of sort of royal desire from the very beginning um in his reference his allusions to the hunts and sort of vice and sort of sexual desire um but the problem
Speaker A
really emerges once sadangada has um sort of regenerated and fails to keep his word um so he he so after so uh charungi leaves his his post and goes about experimenting he in particular he experiments with his vaccine
Speaker A
his ability to make whatever he says the truth sort of the state of things um and um you know but after mathiendra sort of runs into chao rangi out of the mountains um he's understandably angry that he's been disobeyed
Speaker A
but his sort of um his sort of reprimand of chao rangi is sort of based in his sort of innate character um as a kashatriya um and so much gainer in particular makes this uh analogy saying plantain seed in the ground
Speaker A
will it bring joy and wondrously grow into a tree of mango sweet and lovely make a camphor scented watering trench fill a golden vessel with good water and pour it in will an on the onion lose its old old
Speaker A
odor and grow gifting the scent of a flowering tree so i mean in a way we can we can read this as a team that are kind of a scolding charangi but also saying you know what what else could i expect
Speaker A
um you know this it's only sort of this princess this this cassava's sort of innate nature uh coming to fruition um that has sort of resulted in um you know him disobeying me and um sort of just wanting to kind of
Speaker A
sport in his own power and i think um in a way i mean this this brings up i think ultimately and sort of signals ultimately a question of motivation and intent of the text so we have to remember that
Speaker A
sarangada didn't actually intentionally give up his royal identity right he was cast out of the royal world world by his father and he happened to be a beneficiary beneficiary of saint grace's compassion um in his compassion sort of makes um
Speaker A
sadangada into the siddha chowdangi and gives him these great powers but it's not as if the prince actually wanted to you know he didn't renounce anything and if anything he only wanted to be saved from his mutilated condition
Speaker A
and you know once though once he was a siddha he was you know simply kind of self-satisfied with his powers um and i sort of mentioned this as a question of intent uh precisely because um i mean we can see in sort of other the
Speaker A
other narratives that follow in particular when we get to the chapter three and we're looking at the story of an initiation of budupaksha that this you know much of these initiation stories that follow are very much uh sort of concerned with the intent and
Speaker A
the sort of true actual commitment of the people who become siddhas who want to become a team that is disciples their intent and their commitment to becoming siddhas and in fact renouncing uh sort of their royal power and their
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ambition um so and i think it's worth noting that you know many of the sort of people who become these sort of nine knots who become disciples of me of matsuyam do in fact come from these princely lineages
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um so for instance judo paksha um has actually comes to their willingly and does in fact seek him out in a way um but it's matinder grills him um and sort of has to sort of test his commitment
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um and you know virupaksha must have to respond with his own sort of life story to explain why in fact he's no longer committed to um his sort of royal power in any way but even then i mean i should note that
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masendra doesn't believe them he's he's ultimately suspicious and refuses he's only he only agrees actually not after they he uh guru paksha and as well as uh nagarjuna and the fourth to give their stories but he has to have a
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sort of divine witness to their to their sort of commitment so either a voice from the sky or in or in some cases shiva himself will appear to say like look what uh um give them a break you know
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they they're they're being honest here um so you so it's okay to bring them into the tradition now um sort of in marking this this sort of conflict and this concern with kind of um the sort of acquisition
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and the sort of use of yoga powers um the nomination is again engaging with a sort of an older theme that comes out in sort of the more technical manuals um that sort of distinguish between um practicing these arts these
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techniques for the purpose of actually sort of achieving and enjoying the siddies so this is you know what we could call the perspective versus um sort of engaging in yoga practices undertaking these sort of techniques for the purpose of the the greater sydney
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the girl the greatest city siddhi of the mahasithi of liberation or moksha and this is what we could call the mumuksu practice or orientation and so we i mean we have yogurt manual sort of traditions of taking different sides in
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this and what the extent to which it's uh permissible and sort of to actually sort of seek yogic powers for their own sake and to use them and enjoy them um and we have sort of more sort of
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tantrically contra-cleaning um texts maybe taking the the role the sort of orientation that maybe it's okay to actually indulge in the cities to some extent um another nachotomo very clearly i think does not take a kind of perspective
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right it doesn't it's very interested in yogis and the sithos not sort of really using their powers for the sake of power in the kind of worldly sense right luxuriance and sort of political achievement but i think you know it's really
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interested in fact in dramatizing this tension and it dramatizes precisely through um these sort of stories of these kings and princes and um who are sort of sort of basically coming to yoga yoga consider practices with a very
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different orientation and maybe in fact congenitally afflicted with uh the qualities of arrogance and selfishness and pride um which makes which just would make them a poor fit for the kind of siddha tradition the sort of ascetic renunciant tradition
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is the head of and i would say that this larger tension is we should see it here precisely because right um like in a way it's also not just a problem with kings um right i mean i think there's there's a
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way in which um on the one hand goraksha it stands in direct contrast to sadangada or charangy he becomes in the course of the text messenger is chief disciple and in fact his sort of more let's say meager position as a cowherd
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is is valor precisely valorized by when he finally initiates gauraksha um right and it sort of he these these his sort of cow herd orientation is sort of recognized in a way as a kind of like transferable skill if you want to use
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the kind of present market language right he says and since you deliberating with wisdom ward the cattle of the senses without letting them wander i give you the fine name of the cowherd or godaksha so in a way massimo is saying that you
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know a yogi is is just a cow herd in a way just a cow herd of different kinds of cattle and in this way he's also sort of drawing a distinct contrast between him and the kashatriya chaurangi from you know very early in the text
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but i think we also have to note that even goraksha misses the mark and we see this in this encounter with allama prabhu uh the veena shaiva sort of siddha saint um you know i think you know i've marked this as a way in which
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the the this not the tradition is being you know subsumed within the veda shaiva tradition but i would also say that it more broadly maybe more in line with the rest of the text is actually just sort of articulating and dramatizing
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again this mumuksu distinction because the the precise contrast between the kinds of siddhis that are being sort of narrated here instead of that their debate that gauraksha and alama prabhu are debating is about their bodies and godraksha for
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his part through his cities has a vajradeha an adamantine body which you know is invincible but you know because it's highly solid alama on the other hand has a shunyadeja the sort of empty ethereal body which the text praises as a pure
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aesthetic achievement that is you know even more even less bound to sort of material concerns um and when goraksha realizes this the text says that alama prabhu has in fact shed him of his arrogance and his envy and caught and has caused the final
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laser layer of gauraksa's own delusion to fall away so in this case garaksha even here even though he's on one hand been distinguished from shatria he's still being brought into this um into their sphere insofar as he too
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is marked by these same defects now um i'm going to sort of run through some of this a little more quickly so we have time for questions but i want to say that in a way like the story is not just
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about whether or not kings make good yogis that might make good siddhas um the text is also fun also very much about um whether siddha yogis should interact with kings with political powers perhaps at all because kings are not just bad
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disciples but they can be very bad or even treacherish treacherous allies um and this again stems from their sort of congenital sort of selfishness arrogance and their sort of fundamental orientation towards the pursuit of power um and pleasure um and these stories are
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and this these themes are foregrounded in the sort of later stories um of the text which are about gorakshas and nagarjuna siddha students and so here for instance in the story of vyali we have a siddha who's engaging in alchemical techniques
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and has a kind of recipe for immortality that the king tries to steal from him and ultimately tries to boil the siddha alive in a vat of boiling oil after he steals the recipe um in fact he does boil the siddha alive so
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he steals it but we have this as this kind of cautionary tale we have this other tale of uh the story of um gorak guru who is gordaksha's student who gets to live at the end of the story but the king is no better
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because garaka in this case has the akashina sydney the power of possession and attraction and acquisition which the king wants the siddha to use for him but after the siddha refuses the king thinks that the siddha is actually going
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to use his akashin a siddhi his power to attract and acquire things to take the things that the king himself has and so um and here the king is kind of seeing this garaka sid garakul the siddha as
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precisely this kind of sinister yogi competitor in the realm of royal power um the siddha is not um but nonetheless the king after being refused by the siddha tries to have him killed by assassins but i think the sort of starkest story
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that we get in terms of um the sort of incompatibility between siddhas and kings is actually in the final story the story of gaurantaka gorantika siddha who who enters the story after it which is in fact about a king named
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kandara who um after a series of events um where he brings misfortune upon his kingdom um tries to then he finds a kind of misfortune in the form of disease he finds a sort of magical reservoir of water which he tries to kind of
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exploit and sort of channel to his city and so but in the course of sort of ordering and engineering this public works project uh to sort of siphon the waters of the of this sort of magical tank um the
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the workers in fact sort of pierce a hole into the underworld and anger a divinity down there who deman and they end up draining the waters and bringing kind of further misfortune upon the city but there is you know a way out that the
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deity offers which is human sacrifice um and in response to this the king ultimately proves willing to sacrifice his own people to maintain and replenish the site and replenish the water and appease the gods but um you know the subject his subjects you
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know expectedly do not take well to this and you know i think in here i mean we find you know again a familiar theme which is the king's kind of ambivalent and maybe even impure position as a sort of agent of maintaining the
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social order through violence but here in fact i i would say like this story actually finds him um finds that whole function being you know fully perverted where you know the king krishna kandara you know whether he wants to or not
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is brought to a point where he you know by his own desires and interests has to set his own sovereign force against his own people um the only way out that we're that we get is ultimately um from this who sort of arrives at the
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town at a sort of use at a sort of at the last moment and sort of agrees to sort of stand in um for the sort of subjects of the kingdom that might have otherwise been sacrificed um but you know before doing so he has
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to criticize the king and he says oh king and killing so many people as they wail just so the waters of the waters of the tank might stand here again what reward comes to you through such a cool act when you think of a world
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protector's dharma is this it um so here you know in a way i mean the sydney is marking the king's you know acts here as sort of fundamentally at abs at odds with his sort of imperative to safeguard his realm
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um but ultimately i mean the way that um the siddha is able to sort of save the day is by in fact um sort of in a way plugging the hole um that the text is actually very broken
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here um so what happens um in the sort of the spinal sort of ritual um is unclear but it seems that the the sort of interred or something in a temple um that is built over the the sort of rift
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to the underworld um but and all this is to sort of demonstrate that you know the text is really interested in sort of casting royal power as inherently self-oriented um and for all usual models of indian kingship in a way this this
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isn't problematic because in fact the king's enjoyment of personal pleasure and prosperity is often understood to just ramify throughout his own realm um but then of not to charge him was sort of drawing out these kind of alternative these sort of contradictions
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of this model and ultimately saying that it doesn't it doesn't work but in its place he does offer it does offer a sort of alternative vision i would say of a kind of ascetics ascetic sovereignty um and this is often comes out when the
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text speaks of yoga samarajam so me so matera is often said to sort of preside over his disciples and in fact much of the world in this state of yogic sovereignty um so sort of the sovereignty that seeks
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power and sort of holds power but shows no interest in directly enjoying it it's not self-oriented and at best it's uh purely generous and benevolent and even will sort of offer prosperity at the sort of siddha yogi's sort of own expense
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i would say the only place the only story that offers a kind of workable model of siddha yogi relations is in the story of nagarjuna's disciple atreya who and this is the story of this this this siddha through alchemical
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practices uh trying to turn the mountain the great mountain of srishilam to gold um and in the course of this he makes a pact with the king who becomes his disciple and protector but also i mean the ultimate goal of
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turning srishalam into goals is to in fact you know kind of eliminate inequality when sort of wealth inequality in particular but even this even if it offers a workable model of relationships between a siddha and a king is in a way depicted as being
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unsustainable because vishnu as he often does arrives on the scene to sort of maintain the usual hierarchical ordering of society so so just to sort of wrap up here so that we can have some time for questions the
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ultimately um i would suggest kind of celebrates this an idea of kind of rule of power that's founded on renunciation and asceticism um even so right um as i just mentioned this this mo the models that it does present that are
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positive are ultimately rendered inconceivable um and they're undone by one or the other parties arrogant so in the case of this final story i mentioned about treya you know even though he's depicted as being ultimately generous and benevolent
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he is also mentioned as sort of basically wanting to be an alchemical celebrity um and so this this kind of thing this again this sort of concern with sort of pride um that vishnu when he comes to undermine atreya um
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sort of goes after and sort of takes as you know one of the reasons for uh contravening it um even so i would say that this larger kind of narrative argument resonates with the religious and political world of sri shilam in the 14th and 15th
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centuries um so i would say so specifically i think in sort of thinking through the sort of political potential and associations of ascetics um i think the text points us to think about a little bit more about the place
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of gautama's patron uh the ascetic patentee mukti shanta um who was the sort of presided over um the matra at srish island and seemed to have a sort of in fact a larger uh sort of role as a
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superintendent over the sort of complex of sri shailum itself based on the epigraphical evidence um and i would say i mean i think this is marked in fact by precisely by the sort of rising political fortunes of of the big chavrty
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leaders in the 14th and 15th century um so kind of starting with mukti shanta they sort of gain and seemingly gain sort of increasing levels of of power in the and over sri asylum and in the in the region
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and later inscriptions of sort of disciples or seemingly potentially sons and of muktishanta hold you know significant political economic and even military power in the greater shush island region and i think we in a way we find a direct parallel to
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the text in the story of antreya because we see a kind of sort of naming practice um that is replicated among the be in the big chavrty sphere um so nagarjuna student atreya um the only way that he
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kind of has a good relationship with the king is that the king becomes his disciple and takes on his name so the king gets rid of his older name and becomes tiago nagarjuna following atreya's own name as sort of
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this nagarjuna and we see this sort of echoed actually in the epigraphical and literary evidence in the case of a patented from the deccan named mumma disanta who was named after and clearly a disciple of mukti shanta bikshavatiraya um so and i i think
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more broadly the big chavish urayas and aside from sort of encouraging uh sort of in this case um i think they have a lot they seemingly based on the sort of project of these the um the great architectural release that
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some of the images that i showed at the beginning of the talk are drawn from on those sort of walls around the malikajana temple at srishaim they were commissioning these works at precisely the same period that they would have been commissioning the nova
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nacho toy so they clearly have this sort of larger interest in uh sort of kind of celebrating a kind of siddha and yoga culture at sri shalom and i think the navanatsu tradition participates in this larger project but i think part of the project i mean
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that i would emphasize is that in fact it's sort of um capacious realization right it's not precisely not limited to a kind of not something but i think they're they're trying to sort of sort of portray shree xylem precisely as
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this kind of place four sid does for these esoteric practices for yogic practices um as well as um i think also it's kind of shoring up its status as shri shalom as the sri shainum right because we in fact
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there are sort of in some cases these competing claims and um two sometimes where sri shailem is uh in the decade um but i think they're sort of trying to sort of centralize the traditions around sri shilom and
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the practices um at um at their site and gardeners was meant to participate in that so i'll stop there um and um yeah let's thank you so much jamal that was great uh maybe we can stop sharing the screen i don't know
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yeah doesn't really matter uh oh yeah that's better thank you um yeah that was fantastic i could have listened to you keep going for hours um and it makes me want to read your thesis again i i've got loads of questions but there
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are quite a few on the slider as well and we haven't got that much time so i won't be i will i'll just i'll have to pick one of my questions um so mukti shanta who was the guarana's patron do we know anything
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about his cast background you know if there's all this stuff against kshatriyas and so forth is there some tension in that i mean do we know anything about that was he like yeah brahmin was it or not i mean it's it's unclear actually i mean
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from what from my reading um i mean most most of what we get and the couple of inscriptions and descriptions that we have so these are common the navanatcha charisma is where actually we get i would say the
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lengthiest description from to my knowledge um there's another um text in the poem in telugu by the poet srinata who is a contemporary of gauranga so in his shivaratri mahatma mahatmu he names his patron as this moomari shanta
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who is portrayed as the disciple of mukti santa and so i think because in fact the connection is kind of a couple of steps away we don't we don't get very much about mukti shanta in the shivaratri mahatma
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i think i mean i think there's some confusion here even about because of the sort of naming practices and people taking on names of of their sort of gurus and fathers and things like that um some of it is a little still to me a little
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ambiguous um but i would say in the nomination and in the shivaratri mahatma the little that we get and then in some inscriptions from the middle of the early middle of the 15th century um mukti shanta i mean we don't get much
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about his background i mean he's he's sort of for the praised as he is which is as this kind of ascetic king you're literally a yes um and he's so he's sort of portrayed he's so he's praised um in the inscription then by
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gaudina using the tropes that are used to describe royal figures um but we don't get but that sort of a praise of him as he presides you know in the present um so yeah i mean i i haven't
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i haven't been able to uh sort of detect or sort of pull out the bits about the background yeah i mean i'd be interested to hear what others might think or know um because i'm still in some ways
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working through the evidence was he do we know i mean because he as you say he kind of had military and he was you know building reservoirs he was like a king was he victorious the king of victoria was there
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was he under any bigger any you know actual king that we know of was so was there you know was part of the the idea of the of the nawa natacharith to kind of tell this other king that
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they were that you know they were behaving badly and then in fact that uh mukti shanta was the you know the best ruler around we know i mean i mean i think you know i so so they're we're writing
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so gauranga is writing right sort of in this sort of period where like where vijayanagara is kind of achieving ascendancy um i think you know in the early years it's maybe not quite so settled and they're you know there's
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the other families in the region that they're competing with the ray charles and the red d's in particular okay okay um that might have been some of that that might have been more so i think that that's some of it um but i
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think yeah i mean i think later i mean so his son or grandson lingaya um is explicitly named as having like having a military and we have records in some later collections so this what is it the charla sort of vomchavali
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text which is sort of assembled and probably in the 16th or 17th century um of sort of praises of these rachael kings who find their way into that you know more into tumble country um but we then we find reference to
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actually the big shabbat ira's military fighting with these like vijayanagara generals so um i think yeah he's definitely i mean they're definitely trying to be like we are just independent i would say i mean that's definitely coming through
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okay great all right thanks so we haven't got that long i will cost you any technical only got five minutes and we've got plenty of questions lots of questions the one at the top of the slide though is
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lucy may constantini so if it's possible to go to her that would be great lucy should be unmuted okay can you hear me yeah hi hey hi thank you very much for that it was really fascinating um it's a really quite straightforward
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question you touched on it towards the end but i was just hoping you could give um a little bit more context as to like the the geography of this poem like where exactly is it thought to have emerged and in what kind of a
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context right um so yeah i mean it's gauran is very clearly writing at sri shalom uh sort of so in the great temple complex in the deccan uh where the central deities swami garuna himself seems to be a potentially
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a devotee of um of this molecular genos consort brahmarambika but i would say it's kind of geographically i mean it's sort of i mean sri shalom is kind of the center for as i was sort of yeah as i was
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touching on this this sort of vietnam community that sort of spans you know karnataka um especially you know it goes to point south and into other parts of the deccan um and he's clearly i mean i think kind
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of a part of you know sort of assembly assimilating many of these uh traditions and he's um using his um he's using their sort of in telugu their favorite verse form for long compositions which is doipada um but i say
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in fact he's so gaudina is probably coming from a little farther north in the deccan and sort of more like telangana because of his family connections to this dynasty and the ray charlotte dynasty which is sort of short-lived power in the area
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that kind of emerged in ghana in the 13th and the 14th century but i mean sort of contextually i mean i would say that yeah i mean i would really could have centered gaurano at srishilam even if i wouldn't sort of say sort of
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center his participation in the sort of video world um if only because i think he has sort of other other commitments and a sort of i think he's i mean he's seemingly kind of like a classically trained poet who's sort of
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acting sort of opportunistically in the region um because there are a lot of maybe like minor dynasties um that aren't as powerful now given sort of the rise of the nagara the rise of kind of more kind of persian culture in the deccan um
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as well and so he's i think found found his way to this great temple shriek island which you know where you know there are these powers there that are in fact trying to kind of build something of a court
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a more sort of traditional kind of sense critic let's say court um in the area i don't know if that gets to some of your concerns but great thank you right okay thanks so um next question and and he's got a a comment
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and a question as well uh a mole bunker we can go through here hello can you hear me yeah i can hear you hello jamal actually uh i'm also working on some uh old malachi sources okay yeah i feel
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definitely yes and they are very parallel to your work actually so we have the story of this chowrangi in our marathi from 30th century and uh it is very interesting for you that the story of goraksha there is one parallel of the
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story so in in the marathi uh there is a argument between this uh and this corruption defeats this mirupa and this vidupa is converted so maybe these two stories they may have some prototype and another question is uh do you have
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any references of goda choli and siddha kaneri in your this text let me let me say that um we do have a long list of uh disciples that are that are named we have yeah we do have godad chuda
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named for instance and then who what is the other name let me check the slider he was disciple of nagarjuna um canary no no mention of canary that i can actually he is mentioned as uh arya tibetan traditions okay so this god in
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malati tex we have referenced that actually was related with interesting okay yeah i mean yeah so yeah there's a brief so the mention of a lot of them come in this in the last chapter um at the beginning there's a
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sort of list of sort of where the immediate disciples go like which regions of india they go to and then there's a list of their disciples accompanying that okay okay then thank you okay thanks um jamal we we're already a
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minute over it would it do you mind if we go on for sort of minutes or something yeah we've got plenty um okay so the next one is hurry please we can go to hurry next then the rest are anonymous
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harry you kind of mute yourself now harry you should be unmuted hello hurry oh here we go hi hello hi harry we can hear something but i don't know can you try again uh can everyone hear me yeah that's better
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can everyone here yes yeah yeah that's a lot better okay hi um so it's just how much oh now you've dropped out but harry if you've got a problem with the connection i mean i can because i can see your
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question maybe i should read it out it's gonna be save some time so the question i don't think we i think your connection's too weak harry so hopefully you can hear because i'm going to read your question out and then we can um if you
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can't you can always listen back in the recording the question is how much interaction was there between hindu and scare quotes and buddhist naz and siddhas in andhra pradesh at this time did they see themselves as clearly distinct
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um yeah that's an interesting question i wonder there's even any evidence of buddhist siddhas as such if you would yeah i mean i i don't know that i can speak too much to that i mean i yeah i don't
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know what kind of evidence there is to kind of to really to answer that question um well you know i mean i think i mean as i sort of mentioned uh or i mean as i can try to bring together with some of the
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work that you know i'm becoming aware i'm aware of from what you know jim and dr yoga project are doing right i mean there's they're truly i mean there's some there's some kind of connection or i don't know
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how we want to sort of think about that kind of sort of broader sid the culture that may be you know kind of involve practitioners who might take one affiliation or the other but i mean based on the evidence i have
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from you know the sort of literate telugu literary sources that i'm most familiar with um i mean this tradition is basically portrayed as a kind of hindu or i mean ultimately a shy of a tradition um i mean let's see that is recognized
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as a as shiva as an embodiment of shiva himself um and you know that carries through the sort of other references and sort of context that i can take um and i mean i mean i would say you know
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kind of thinking to them back to the big chavers again that right i mean they're they are whatever they are they are shiva um and they are i think you know interested in sort of sort of claiming a certain you know we might say kind of
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shy of a sort of affiliation and sort of umbrella over this these kind of siddha traditions um and the sort of these sort of siddha figures i mean who they're clearly i mean they're sort of referenced very briefly in the prologue
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as to you know sort of sitting in the court maybe of the these great sydney yogis who are there um and i think you know based on gauranga's use of um which i mean just to say is like a
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literary form but has some kind of full kind of vernacular song tradition association um which i'm still trying to sort of describe i mean he's clearly kind of doing some kind of compilation work um so i mean i think we have these
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stories that are circulating i mean i think emol's um questions and comments kind of speak to that right i mean we have these stories that are sort of circulating probably you know probably orally you know prep maybe in some kind of you
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know who knows exactly what forms multiple forms um but they're being you know kind of in this case you know crystallized in this kind of shiloh work but i i that's the best i can do yeah i mean
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from my reading of your word i don't it's not it's never mentioned that for example is buddhist is it a mention of buddhism within the i mean i've i've written a little bit about uh the minister in uh in mangalore
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mangalapura who's siddha buddha isn't here buddha so maybe there's some uh implication there yeah yeah okay we've got a few more questions we won't be able to get through them all i don't think but there's a couple um they're all anonymous so i've got to
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read them out there's a couple that are quite similar so the first one is this story about power and challenging those who have power and then the other question is i often find that natas are considered a counter cut
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a counter culture to brahmanism is this evident in the navanatha cherith some seem to be uppercast by identity and i suppose that also ties in with vera shaivism which i guess is kind of nascent at that time but also is
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seen as a challenge to cast hierarchy as well isn't it yeah yeah i mean so i would say i mean as i mentioned i mean just to kind of start at one level i mean gaudina is i mean he's a brahman and like very
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proudly so and as i mentioned in his sort of sanskrit work on poetics i mean his basically his argument there i mean if we can kind of think about him as having kind of consistent world view his argument is that you know at least
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in a we can say in a kind of religious or metaphysical sense only brahmanas should be poets or should be poets that may be like kings accept poetry from like if we think about kind of a poem like some kind of object
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or gift um but within the text um i would say actually yeah most of them are uppercast by i mean most of these siddhas except for goraksha are coming from either kashatriya or or identified as kuchatri or brahman
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many are satria i mean we have so siddha buddha is a brahmana probably um um we have um kanika siddha um who's meant to be just kind of mentioned briefly is a brahmana sage living in a himalayan ashram
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before he becomes initiated he's sort of he's sort of like a kind of older sort of dupa swin type um who kind of turns the corner into the sort of yoga um and then yeah most others are so i mean i would say it is
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an in a sense um in one sense it's not cultural i mean it's sort of establishing certain kind of pedigrees from most of its members um but i think in a way i mean it's it is all it is sort of establishing a kind
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of separate sphere potentially um but i would say i mean as with the question that sort of kind that's coming out on a lot of the scholarship around the leadership from people like elaine fisher and um especially um
Speaker A
[Music] i wouldn't say it it doesn't reject brahmanism fully or even yeah i mean it just it's more of like a re a reorientation but i mean just in terms of who's actually depicted as being included in this world i mean they're they're sort
Speaker A
of often than the sort of you know upper undercast kind of upper line uh folk okay well thanks i mean we're actually i think that's it really for questions because yeah we just hit 5-2 but well i've got one one or two
Speaker A
questions just quick ones uh any plans for publication and and related also what about a translation of the whole text any thoughts on it yeah i'm working i'm working on it this is kind of the short answer um i'm sort of
Speaker A
yeah i mean i have this project and then i'm sort of working on a more a translation project and with sort of commentary um yeah as well as yeah but i'm sort of also kind of maybe sort of
Speaker A
working on that a little more slowly than sort of the other project on poetics and astrology and ritual and you've just got a new teaching job so presumably as um but yeah it's i'm sort of working on it and sort of yeah try
Speaker A
i think i need i also need to kind of think through some of the other things people you know talk talking to uh you and others and uh yeah hopefully yeah connecting with people who are also working on the
Speaker A
marathi material in the commonwealth and um because i i have some more i think thinking in terms of at least on the sort of commentary sort of analysis side i feel a workshop coming on
Topics:Nine NathsTelugu literatureHatha YogaSouth IndiaDeccanNavanata CharitraVirupaShaiva traditionsmedieval yogaSouth Asian studies
